The Night the Oscars Died

This past week nationally recognized movie critic Jack Garner (also my former professor I might add) wrote an article about the biggest Best Picture upsets in Oscar history. Some of them I agreed with (High Noon losing to The Greatest Show on Earth in 1952 and An American In Paris beating A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951) and some I disagreed with (saying that all four other films were better than the 1976 winner Rocky...PUH--LEASE!).

However for the life of me I couldn't believe he left off what I consider to be the biggest upset in Oscar history. Certainly the most unfair. In 1998 Shakespeare In Love went Lindsey Lohan and stole the golden statue right out from under the far superior Saving Private Ryan. My friend Mike likes to call it "The Night the Oscars Died." I couldn't have thought of a more fitting title.

I distinctly remember my reaction at the time. I leaped off my couch in frustration and started yelling at the television like an insane sports fan. My passion for cinema knows no bounds but this was the first time I can remember being seriously angry about an Oscar. If there was a deer in the room I probably would have punched it in the face. "How could the Academy get this so wrong?" I asked myself at the time.

It was not until years later that I discovered the reason: the Weinstein Brothers. If anybody needed anymore evidence that the Academy Awards is 90% popularity contest they need look no further than the Weinstein brothers. The Weinstein brothers are such experts at fellating every Academy member that has a vote it's a wonder they don't teach oral sex classes. It is embarrassing and reprehensible that these two schmucks have to campaign for their movies like this. Whatever happened to letting your movie stand on it's own merit?

Saving Private Ryan was a transcendent film in that it was not simply a "war film," but a multi-layered cinema masterpiece. It examines what constitutes a well lived life, the value of family, demonstrates the amazing bond between brothers in arms, shows that war is sometimes the price you pay for living in a civilized society, and the sincere debt we owe to "The Greatest Generation" for the price they paid in blood.

To have Saving Private Ryan lose out to a sentimental tear-jerker like Shakespeare In Love is a tragedy enough to make the Bard himself weep.